GOP’s lackluster fundraising spurs post-election infighting
WASHINGTON — Trailing badly in his Arizona Senate race as votes poured in, Republican Blake Masters went on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program and assigned blame to one person: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“You know what else is incompetent, Tucker? The establishment. The people who control the purse strings,” Masters said before accusing the long-serving GOP leader and the super PAC aligned with him of not spending enough on TV advertising. “Had he chosen to spend money in Arizona, this race would be over. We’d be celebrating a Senate majority right now.”
Masters not only lost his race against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, but he also trailed every other Republican running for statewide office in Arizona. There’s another problem Masters didn’t acknowledge: He failed to raise significant money on his own.
He was hardly alone.
As both parties sift through the results of Democrats’ stronger-than-expected showing in the midterm elections, Republicans are engaged in a round of finger-pointing, including a failed attempt by Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who led the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, to challenge McConnell for his leadership post.
But the recriminations obscure a much deeper dilemma for the party. Many of their nominees — a significant number of whom were first-time candidates who adopted far-right positions — failed to raise the money needed to mount competitive campaigns. That forced party leaders, particularly in the Senate, to make hard choices and triage resources to races where they thought they had the best chance at winning, often paying exorbitant rates to TV stations that, by law, would have been required to sell the same advertising time to candidates for far less.
The lackluster fundraising allowed Democrats to get their message out to voters early and unchallenged, while GOP contenders lacked the resources to do the same.
“This has become an existential and systemic problem for our party, and it’s something that needs to get addressed if we hope to be competitive,” said Steven Law, a former McConnell chief of staff who now leads Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC that spent at least $232 million on advertising to elect Republicans to the Senate this year.
“Our (donors) have grown increasingly alarmed that they are being put in the position of subsidizing weak fundraising performances by candidates in critical races. And something has got to give. It’s just not sustainable,” Law said.
JAN. 6 SEDITION TRIAL OF OATH KEEPERS FOUNDER GOES TO JURY
WASHINGTON — As angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, ready to smash through windows and beat police officers, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes extolled them as patriots and harkened back to the battle that kicked off the American Revolutionary War.
“Next comes our ‘Lexington,’” Rhodes told his fellow far-right extremists in a message on Jan. 6, 2021. “It’s coming.”
Jurors will begin weighing his words and actions today, after nearly two months of testimony and argument in the criminal trial of Rhodes and four co-defendants. Final defense arguments wrapped up late Monday.
The jury will weigh the charges that the Oath Keepers were not whipped into an impulsive frenzy by Trump on Jan. 6 but came to Washington intent on stopping the transfer of presidential power at all costs.
The riot was the opportunity they had been preparing for, prosecutors say. Rhodes’ followers sprang into action, marching to the Capitol, joining the crowd pushing into the building, and attempting to overturn the election that was sending Joe Biden to the White House in place of Trump, authorities allege.
Not true, the Oath Keepers argue. They say there was never any plot, that prosecutors have twisted their admittedly bombastic words and given jurors a misleading timeline of events and messages.
NEW YORK ISSUES FIRST LICENSES FOR LEGAL POT DISPENSARIES
NEW YORK — New York issued its first 36 cannabis dispensary licenses on Monday, taking a monumental step in establishing a legal — and lucrative — marketplace for recreational marijuana.
The licenses approved by the state’s Cannabis Control Board were the first of 175 the state plans to issue, with many in the first round reserved for applicants with past convictions for marijuana offenses.
Eight nonprofit groups were among the 36 licensees granted Monday.
Some of the dispensaries, selected from a pool of more than 900 applicants, are expected to open by the end of the year.
New York has also planned a $200 million public-private fund to aid “social equity” applicants to help redress the ravages of the war on drugs, especially in communities of color.
A court ruling earlier this month has delayed the board from approving dispensaries in some parts of the state amid a legal dispute over licensing criteria. Nevertheless, officials said they would issue the remaining licenses as quickly as possible.
SUV SLAMS INTO MASSACHUSETTS APPLE STORE; 1 DEAD, 16 INJURED
HINGHAM, Mass. — An SUV crashed through the front window of an Apple store Monday in Massachusetts, killing one person and injuring 16 others, authorities said.
Police were investigating but didn’t immediately say whether the crash was believed to be accidental. Hingham police Chief David Jones would say only that it was an active investigation. The driver of a 2019 Toyota 4Runner was being interviewed.
The victim was identified by law enforcement as Kevin Bradley, 65, of New Jersey. He was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
UVA FOOTBALL PLAYER WOUNDED IN SHOOTING GETS OUT OF HOSPITAL
RICHMOND, Va. — A University of Virginia football player who was seriously wounded in a shooting that killed three of his teammates has been released from the hospital.
Brenda Hollins, the mother of running back Mike Hollins, tweeted early Monday: “Mike has been discharged!!! HALLELUJAH.”
She asked for continued prayers “as he recovers and settles into his new life.” She also asked for prayers for the families of the three players who were killed in the Nov. 13 shooting. “They need us!!!” she wrote.
Joe Gipson, a spokesman for the Louisiana law firm where Brenda Hollins works, said Mike Hollins was released from the UVA Medical Center on Sunday. Gipson said Mike Hollins will be staying with his family at an offsite location near the hospital for the next few weeks for follow-up medical appointments.